AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK &. CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agricoltubal Wahehodse.) 



■vol.. XVII.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 29, 1839. 



[NO. 47. 



AGRICULTURAL, 



From ' Transactions of the Essex Agricultural Society, 1S33.' 



ESSEX AGRICULTURE. 



Mdi'cssed to the Farmers of Essex County, Mass. 



BY HE.Mir COLMA.\. 



(Concluded.) 



On former occasions I have strongly urged upon 

 the Esse.x farmers the subject of a winter dai- 

 ry. If well managed, a room with a proper tempe- 

 rature secured, and an abundance of succulent food 

 prepared for the stock, I believe it would be attend- 

 ed with less trouble than in summer ; and the best 

 of new made sweet butter in the winter, where the 

 cows are bountifully fed upon good hay and car- 

 rots, would command a very high price in Boston 

 market. I know one fanner who keeps a winter 

 dairy in the vicinity of Boston, and who for several 

 years has contracted for his butter deliverable new 

 once a week at fortyfive cents a pound ; and the 

 firkin butter presented for premium at the shows of 

 the Massachusetts Agricultural Society in Decem- 

 ber, has much of it been sold for several years at 

 from thirtythree to fifty cents per pound. These 

 are certainly as encouraging prices as any reason- 

 able man can ask. 



This, however, brings me to speak of other crops 

 intimately connected with agricultural improvement, 

 and the cultivation of which such operations would 

 require. Indian corn, at fifty bushels to the acre, 

 is a much more valuable crop than hay. The fod^ 

 iler upon an acre of corn yielding fifty bushels of 

 grain, is, when well cured, fully equul for any kind 

 of neat stock, to one ton of English hay ; and one 

 ton is as much as is obtained by many farmers from 

 their land. 



Carrots we have already spoken of Ruta baga, 

 though an exhausting, is an excellent and profita- 

 ble crop. So also are the sugar beet and the com- 

 mon blood beet. The mangel wurtzel and the com- 

 mon flat turnip are inferior to the other vegetables. 

 The yellow Aberdeen turnip is of almost equal val- 

 ue with the ruta baga, and will keep sound nearly 

 as long. As soon as the farmers in Esse.K will go 

 largely into this kind of cultivation, their products 

 will be increased; their manure heaps will be in- 

 creased ; their lands will be put in the best condi- 

 tion for wheat and barley ; and I think we might 

 venture to anticipate that their crops and improve- 

 ments would be quadrupled. 



The fatting of pork might be pursued by the Es- 

 sex farmer with great advantage. The prices of 

 every description of agricultural produce are high, 

 and so they bid fair to remain. While pork re- 

 mains at ten cents per pound, the piggery, if well 

 managed, would yield ample profits. 



The cultivation of fruit, apples in particular, can- 

 not be too strongly urged upon the Esse.x farmers. 

 We can give no better advice to them than was 

 given by the old Scotchman to "Jock, to be always 

 sticking in a tree, for it would be growing while he 

 was sleeping." The ascertainment of the great 

 value of apples for fattening swine, foi: fattening 



beef cattle, and for the increase of milk and the im- 

 provement of dairy produce, may be pronounced 

 an important modern agricultural discovery. Many 

 intelligent farmers rate them at equal value with 

 potatoes. If indeed they are of half the value of 

 potatoes, the small expense at which a permanent 

 and abundant supply of them can be obtained, com- 

 mend a cultivation of them as extensive as possible. 

 Fruit should be cultivated, likewise, much more 

 than it is, for the marker. Several farmers in tlie 

 vicinity of Boston, sell, of the single article of ap- 

 ples only, from five hundred to twelve hundred dol- 

 lars worth per year. Some in Essex county witliin 

 my knowledge, are accustomed to sell annually to 

 more than the amount of a thousand dollars. Hero 

 loo the demand outruns the supply. Large quan- 

 tities of apples are imported annually from the 

 south and from the east into Salem and Boston. 

 The production of them costs comparatively but 

 little. Seven years, under good management, will 

 give you a bearing orchard. A respectable citizen 

 and a capital farmer in your own county some years 

 since, at the age of seventy, planted an orchard, 

 and has lived several years to enjoy the fruits of 

 the trees of his own planting. The climate and 

 soil of Esse.x are well adapted to the raising of the 

 best of apples and pears. The farm should be ful- 

 ly stocked with these trees. The sides of the fields 

 by the road should be lined with them. Many va- 

 cant places could probably be found, in which trees 

 might be set with advantage, where now nothing 

 of any value is obtained. Thousands and thou- 

 sands might be set out in your pasture grounds 

 without injury to them; indeed in many cases with 

 decided benefit. Apple trees do not impoverish 

 the land ; and the shade is of service to your cat- 

 tle. They will at first require protection, but this 

 is a small affair; and after they come in bearing, 

 the cattle will get the windfalls ; but this will do 

 the7n no hurt. A farmer in Wntertown publicly 

 stated, not long since, that he had been accustomed 

 to give to his stock, swine, milch cows, and fatting 

 cattle, from ten to twelve hundred bushels of ap- 

 ples a year, with most decided advantage. In his 

 case they were given uncooked ; and he pronounc- 

 ed them of equal value with potatoes. What a re- 

 source farmers have here put within their reach ? 

 Ten or twelve bushels of apples to a tree of tolera- 

 ble size and age, is not a large yield. How few 

 farms are there where room cannot be found for the 

 planting of a hundred or even two hundred trees. 

 When once well-planted, protected and trained, lit- 

 tle care is required to keep them in order and pro- 

 ductive. But I shall probably be told that the bo- 

 rer will pierce them ; the canker worm will blast 

 them ; the cattle will browse them ; they will re- 

 quire to be pruned yearly ; the earth around them 

 must be kept loosened ; the frost will often come 

 before we can gather the apples ; we have no place 

 to store them after they are gathered ; yes ! and in- 

 dolence may conjure up a liundred other objections 

 as discouraging and frightful as these ; but that 

 which depends upon our own carefulness, our own 

 carefulness should provide against.. The chances 



of success altogether outweigh the risks of failure. 

 What appears to be chance and accident, (matters 

 which in truth have very little concern in human 

 affairs,) is designed and suited to stimulate human 

 foresight and prudence ; and there can be no doubt 

 that it would be an evil and a calamity if things 

 in this world were more certain to man's providence 

 and command than in truth they now are. Pru- 

 dence and industry are the great elements of suc- 

 cess ; and in general, success in matters pertaining 

 to them are about as certain to prudence and in- 

 dustry, as the liarvest to the seed we sow. 



There is another matter to which I wish to call 

 the attention of the Essex farmers, and the farmers 

 throughout the commonwealth; and that is, the cul- 

 tivation of the sugar maple. It is a tree of quick 

 growth and makes excellent fuel. It is easily prop- 

 agated, and there are many localities in Essex, 

 where, undoubtedly, it would flourish. It is a 

 healthy tree, having no bad influences ; and is not 

 a great exhauster of the soil. It is one of our most 

 beautiful trees for shade or ornament But I rec- 

 ommend its cultivation for the purpose of making 

 sugar. Many farmers in Essex will say, if they 

 should attempt it, Wifi/ never could expect to reap 

 the fruits of their labor. That may be so; but 

 shall we do nothing for posterity ? Have we no 

 ambition to transmit to those who shall come after 

 us, the legacy received from our fathers, enlarged 

 and improved .' A maple tree of thirty years old 

 may be calculated upon to yield sap enough for 

 four pounds of augar. I have known one tree to 

 yield twentyseven pounds of sugar in a season. I 

 have kncwn tnother tree to yield forty pounds. 

 ThesCj, however, are rare instances. The amount 

 of four pounds is a fair average. Several towns 

 in the commonwealth from their own maple trees 

 obtain an ample supply of sugar and molasses for 

 domestic use. One town within my knowledge 

 made the last year twenty thousand pounds of su- 

 gar —two others thirty thousand pounds each ! One 

 town was supposed to have made nearly seventy 

 thousand pounds ; but this last amount is not so 

 well authenticated as the former, of which indeed, 

 there is no doubt Some farmers within my knowl- 

 edge are accustomed to make three hundred lbs. 

 each ; some five hundred pounds; some one thou- 

 sand pounds ; some one thousand five hundred 

 pounds in a season. In many of these cases, the 

 trees from which these products are obtained, are 

 only between thirty and forty years old. They 

 can be tapped, if done judiciously, for years and 

 years without injury. Under improved modes of 

 manufacture, the sugar is capable of being made a 

 very good article ; and when refined, of being as 

 handsome a sugar as is to be found in the market 

 Now, whatever may be the results of the beet su- 

 gar cultivation in this country, in the ultimate suc- 

 cess of which indeed I have perfect confidence, 

 this ought not to interfere with or prevent our 

 planting the maple for the object mentioned. We 

 may, therefore, with the greatest advantages to or- 

 nament, comfort, and interest, line our roads with 

 it ; scatter it over our pastures ; and cultivate it in 



